Aero Asia has announced new routes from Dubai to Multan and Faisalabad, thus meeting a long-standing demand of the Pakistan community.

Aero Asia is the largest private Pakistani airline.

"There has been tremendous pressure from the community to operate flights on these sectors as a large number of expatriates, including businessmen and blue collar workers live in these cities," said Mohammed Murad, the airline's resident director for Gulf region.

Earlier, passengers had to travel long distances by road to reach these cities as the nearest Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore is also at a distance of hundreds of kilometres from these two major cities.

He said with the inaugural flight on December 19 to new destinations, Aero Asia would become the only airline to connect Dubai with six major cities in Pakistan including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar, Multan and Faisalabad.

The airline has also increased flights from Dubai to other destinations in Pakistan. It has added two daytime flights on the Dubai-Karachi sector bringing the total number to 10 flights per week, which is the highest number after Emirates on this sector. The new flights will be operated on Sundays and Mondays.

The airline has also added one more flight on the Dubai-Lahore sector on Fridays. It now has six flights per week on this sector. All flights on this sector will also be operated point-to-point.

"The airline currently operates 26 flights per week from UAE to Pakistani cities including six to Lahore, 10 to Karachi, four to Peshawar, and two to Islamabad. It has already started business class on the Dubai-Karachi and Peshawar sector and is set to start similar services on the Dubai-Lahore sector as well," said Aleem Khan, marketing manager of the airline.